Austin Peay?s Logan Gray slides into home as Lipscomb's Tyler Bethune waits on the throw during Tuesday's game at Raymond C. Hand Park.
THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/ROBERT SMITH
\a15 slides into home as Lipscomb's Tyler Bethune waits on the throw during Tuesday's game at Raymond C. Hand Park. THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/ROBERT SMITH, THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/ROBERT SMITH

Austin Peay's Logan Gray (15) scores on an inside-the-park home run as Dayton's Kuris Duggan loses the ball during Friday's game in the 2014 Riverview Inn Classic at Raymond C. Hand Park. The Govs won 8-5.
THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/ROBERT SMITH
Austin Peay's Logan Gray (15) scores on an inside the park homerun as Dayton's Kuris Duggan loses the ball during Friday's game in the 2014 Riverview Inn Classic at Raymond C. Hand Park. The Govs won 8-5. THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/ROBERT SMITH, THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/ROBERT SMITH

Austin Peay Athletics
Austin Peay?s Logan Gray, who started at all four infield positions last season, is a preseason All-America by D1Baseball.com.
Austin Peay's Logan Gray was selected as the OVC Preseason Co-Player of the Year on Friday. Austin Peay Athletics

Austin Peay State University's Cayce Bredlau (#12) hits helmets with teammate Logan Gray (#15) after Gray's first inning homerun against Bradley University on Friday. The Governors won the season opener 7-1. Ayrika Whitney / The Leaf-Chronicle

Austin Peay State University's dugout reacts to junior Logan Gray's homerun in the first inning of their season opener against Bradley University this Friday. APSU won the first of a three-game series 7-1. Ayrika Whitney / The Leaf-Chronicle

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Before each at bat, Logan Gray does two things — take deep breaths and visualize the pitch.

His mental game in check, Gray approaches the plate, waits for the throw and swings.

The season-opener on Friday was no different for Gray. He breathed, he visualized, he waited, and then Gray sent a deep shot over the left-field fence of Raymond C. Hand Park, his first home run of the season.

It was a relief, according to the Austin Peay third baseman, to get his first home run of the 2016 season on his first-at bat since his injury. But others would take it as a sign of things to come or at least a continuation of where Gray left off last season.

As a sophomore, Gray led the Governors in batting average (.366), home runs (14) and RBI (39) despite only playing in 38 games. Gray was also a second-team all-Ohio Valley Conference selection. But the most impressive feat the 6-foot-2-inch junior accomplished was notching 14 home runs in his final 22 games for ninth-most in program history and 33rd most in Division I.

“His batting stands out on a national level, not just at an Austin Peay level,” said first-year coach Travis Janssen. “So you sit there and go does he stand out on our lineup, absolutely he does. But if you measure Logan with the things that he can do, he stands out among college baseball players any place.”

Those numbers earned Gray a slot as a DIBaseball.com third team All-American and half of the preseason OVC Co-Player of the Year award, an honor he shares with Eastern Kentucky outfielder Kyle Nowlin.

But before the accolades, the Kansas City, Mo., native had to make some adjustments at the plate to find that impressive home-run streak.

Assistant coach Derrick Dunbar worked with Gray on his confidence level, knowing what pitch to attack and trusting his skill set instead of trying to force the hits.

“It just kind of clicked. I wasn’t trying to do too much up there and just trusting my abilities. When I was up there, I was wanting to do whatever the team needed me to do at that point of the game. But I was kind of amazed by my own abilities doing that,” Gray said.

“ … After that I hit my first one of the year; it just kind of snowballed effect after that.”

Just as sudden as the streak started, Gray’s run for the record book ended with a freak accident in the Morehead State series opener April 24.

“They were picking me off at second, and they kind of dropped the knee on me. It bent my thumb back, so it tore that ligament, and I had to have surgery,” Gray said.

Now Gray is perfectly “fine 100 percent, everything is feeling good” and he’s positioned to be one of the heavy hitters for Austin Peay again this year.

But things could have gone completely different for the Governors and their team leading batting threat.

Gray was a heavily recruited infielder out of Rockhurt High School that was even drafted directly out of high school by the Kansas City Royals in the 25th round (744th overall) of 2013 MLB Draft.

So how did APSU snag a high-profile recruit like Gray? They got to him first.

“It was just the fact that we were able to get on him and stay on him that early and show him that we do care,” said Dunbar, who developed a close relationship to Gray during the recruiting process. “Not necessarily about just his baseball ability, but him, his family, his personal life. We were able to get him to come to school.”

That combined with the fact that Gray saw himself as too immature for the big leagues back in 2013, saw the slugger decked in red and white, said Dunbar.

Which is good for a Bat Govs squad built around a large group of returning juniors, Gray included, that will be looking to find a way back into the Ohio Valley Conference after missing two seasons.

Gray and his bat will be a big part of this push but don’t expect him to try and force a similar 14 home-run streak. Not that he wouldn’t be pleased if there was a repeat.

“I’d say some people might be expecting some of that. I know I’m not putting any pressure. If I do (put pressure), I’ll try to do too many things. … and I won’t do that (have a repeat year) if I do that,” he said. “The best I’m going to be is not trying to do too much.”

No need to try and make it happen. After all, look at what Gray can do when he breathes and waits.